Research Guides: MKTG 4310 Marketing Research: Develop A Strategy

Improve your research experience

This guide is designed to provide guidance for finding company and industry information. This guide is divided into five major sections. After you review these sections, you should be able to complete the following tasks.

Develop a strategy and approach for locating company and industry information
Locate company information using appropriate methods
Locate industry information using appropriate methods
Identify tools for consumer, market and industry data & statistics
Identify APA Citation Resources

Company Characteristics

Identifying whether a company is public, private, subsidiary or division of a larger company, or foreign-owned will help you choose the best search tools and methods.

Public Company

Public companies offer shares (ownership) to the general public.
Shares are traded on stock exchanges.
They are legally required to meet public disclosure requirements of the federal government's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
SEC requirements apply to foreign and domestic companies.

Why does this matter?

There is a great deal of information available on public companies because they are required to disclose information about their company. You may have more information available, but information you need may be located in more than one place

Private Companies

Private companies do not sell stock to the public.
Private companies are usually owned by individuals/private investors
Private companies are not legally required to release any information about their activities.

Why does this matter?

There is very little information available on private companies because they are not required to disclose information about their company.

You will need to think outside-the box and perhaps rely on articles, news and. local and state resources.

Subsidiaries and divisions

Information is usually folded into the parent's company's information.
Read carefully through reports about the parent and look for references to the subsidiary.

Company & Industry Codes

Companies and industries have unique codes that can make searching for information more precise.

NAICS
The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy. Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes are four-digit numerical codes that categorize the industries that companies belong to based on their business activities. SIC codes were mostly replaced by the six-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

Why does this matter? You can use industry code to quickly Locate Industry Information like profiles and surveys

NASDAQ
Ticker symbols are letters used to uniquely identify a publicly-traded company. Find ticker symbol for your company using NASDAQ.com or Yahoo! Ticker Symbol look up

Why does this matter? You can use ticker symbols to quickly Locate Company Information like profiles, reports, articles, and filings.